Advent 1, 2010 Sermon

May the light of Christ illumine our hearts and minds, and may I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Well now as this is the last chance I shall have to speak to you in the context of a Eucharist, I thought today I really ought to provide you with some kind of ‘grades and report card’ for the end of our time together – and I’m giving you a week to work on your appeal.
On speaking of appeal – if there are any children here today, I’m offering a small prize to the one who can count the most number of words in this sermon that begin with the letter A, that relate to the themes of Advent. (Big kids can do this too!)
So we’ve already had two – Advent itself, which of course means to come or approach (oh – there’s another “a” word) and ‘appeal’ which means to ‘cry out and ask for response, as the bowlers do at the cricket match – and that’s what the prophets of the Advent readings do; they appeal to their hearers to respond.
But getting back to your report card. I am most pleased to offer you a final report card of all “A” grades – in spirituality, theology, pastoral care and community engagement!! So you can all relax – you are a triple A parish, and don’t let anyone tell you differently – and by the way your age is no impediment to your ardour, your aspiration or your aliveness!
However, I don’t want you getting complacent, so let’s revisit 3 Advent “As” in particular, which you are very good at, and need to pursue further. And they are of course all in our readings today.
So first of all – are you awake? (Maybe we need to try that one again – are you awake?) – oh good phew – I was a bit worried you were slipping back to a B+ there!
Good – because spirituality is all about being awake. It is about attending – remember the phrase we had on our noticeboard for a while, “show me to what you attend, and I will show you who you are.” It is about understanding things, seeing things, hearing things, reflecting on things. It is about expecting (that’s a good Advent word, but it begins with ‘e’ not ‘a’ so it doesn’t count) to encounter God in the daily events of our lives. It is about being receptive to the “angels” God sends us. To be spiritually awake means to be attentive to God and others, and to be live in love.
So we need to be awake. I sometimes think that the best image for the Advent Season is an alarm clock – for Advent wakes us up; alerts us to what is going on in our world and what is most important, and encourages us to activity in the kingdom of God. As Paul says, we are to pay attention to the light, and not to the darkness. We are to be alive to the needs of others, to seek to actualise a vision of a different world. The very first reading of this new liturgical year came from Isaiah. Isaiah who – as Claude Modavich has pointed out, “700 years before Christ – envisioned the reallocation of resourced from the manufacture of weapons of war to implements of cultivation. Obviously it is better to feed people than to kill them. It is a question that keeps being raised today in Iraq and Afghanistan and West Papua. If more doctors, teachers, nurses and means of development were provided rather than more troops what a different world we might have.”
So are we awake? – are we alert to questions such as these? I believe this parish is awake. – but sometimes things dawn on us only slowly, and there is always more waking up we can do. My prayer is that you continue to be alert to the issues of peace and social justice in our world, for these lie at the heart of our faith, as this well know story shows.

One day a wise and learned rabbi turned to his pupils and asked: ‘How can you tell when the night is passed and the day is on its way back again?”
‘When you see an animal in the distance, and you can tell whether it is a sheep or a goat,” one replied.
‘When you see a tree in the distance, and you can tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree,’ another replied.
‘When you can see a person in the distance, and you can tell whether it is a friend or an enemy,’ yet another replied.
There was a number of other answers. But the rabbi was not impressed.
Then his pupils pleaded with him, ‘Tell us what your answer is, rabbi.’
And he replied as follows: “It is when you can look at the face of any human being, and see there the face of a brother or sister, because if you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, for you it is still night.”

So continue to be “awake”, alert to the returning day, alight in the eyes of our brothers and sisters no matter their background or belief.
I would like to award you an “A” grade in theology for another Advent “A” word – a word whose choice will probably surprise you – but I think it is the only technically correct choice – an “A” for your “Agnosticism Now before you all get up and leave, I’m not accusing you of any lack of faith or failure to believe in God. Quite the contrary in fact. Unfortunately in our era agnosticism has been lumped together with atheism and used to define those who have no religious belief. I am not using the word in that sense. Literally “agnostic” means “not knowing”. As such it is the opposite of “Gnostic” – of those who claim special and certain knowledge, as some of our New Age friends do today. Such thinking was rightly condemned as a dangerous heresy be the early church. For only God “knows”.
The truth is we do not know very much at all with certainty. Today’s gospel is full of our “not knowing” – “they knew nothing”, - “you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” – ‘you do not know’ – you are agnostic in that sense – and that is a good thing, for faith is very different from a supposed certainty. Certainty leads to rigid behaviours and attitudes that are lacking in generosity. But an agnostic faith – a faith that acknowledges its own littleness before the immense mystery of God – allows room for the other, both human and divine. There is a great diversity of theological perspective in this parish. That is very healthy and a huge strength. You embody the possibility that those with differing views can sit and eat with one another at one table in peace, and not resort to shouting at each other. Seek to preserve that diversity – resisting the absolutes that stem from anxiety (for these 2 are not Advent “As”!) – and making time for appreciation and adoration of the mystery of God incarnate in human flesh.
Finally I would like to award you an “A” in pastoral care and community engagement for your “Approaching” – your “coming towards”, which of course is a thoroughly Advent word. To approach is not yet to have arrived – it is the “not yet” of the coming of the Kingdom of God, and part of our every day, lived experience as Christian people. We rejoice that Christ has come, that salvation is ours – but we continue to wait with eager longing for the ultimate fulfilment of all things.
To approach another human being who is not known to us is a scary thing. It requires courage and humility. We may or may not be welcome. There may be things about that person which we have yet to learn and understand that may make our approach more difficult.
The important thing is that we do approach; that we seek to share love and care and forgiveness with one another. And mostly in this parish you do pretty well – and the fact that we have welcomed around thirty new people into our parish in the last twelve months is testimony to that. In our humanness, of course, we make mistakes from time to time. The important thing is that we continue to approach one another – through the Pastoral Link Programme; through all our groups and in our daily lives, seeking to make one another welcome – to provide access to our hearts and lives. When the angel approaches Mary, she is alarmed at first; she wonders what kind of approach this is and does not know how it can be, - but she is awake enough, and agnostic enough, for God to gain access – and her assent (now there’s and Advent “A”!) allows God to act.
So as we are prepared to approach the other – in our congregation, in the wider community through the Artspace, through Little Pelicans, through Australia Day, the Courthouse and the Hospital Alliance to give just a few examples – so we find ourselves approaching the Christ incarnate in our brother and sister in need.
And still more wonderfully we find God approaching us – appealing to our hearts; announcing the Good News that peace and salvation are possible for everyone and in every circumstance. Sometimes the reality of that vision may seem far off. But it is our Advent hope that our approaching and the approaching of God will meet in the glorious embrace we call the coming of the Kingdom of God.
So now before I close with a brief reflection, how have you done with your “A” words!
As Jan Richardson has written (“Night Vision p.56-57) “A seed in the ground. A flame in the darkness. A hand outstretched. A child in the womb. Hope starts small and overtakes us, stretching the borders of what we have known – Hope starts small, even as a seed in the womb, but it feeds on outrageous possibilities. It beckons us to step out with the belief that the action we take will not only bear fruit but that in taking it, we have already made a difference in the world. God invites us, like Mary, to open to God’s radical leading; to step out with sometimes inexplicable faith, trusting that we will find sustenance.”
May the God who perpetually announces Good News, fill our hearts with joy and faith, as we step out on the next stages of our journeys.

Amen.